Opening a RIS File

The RIS file type is primarily associated with EndNote.

RIS	File extension: RIS
	File type:	bibliography reference

What is a RIS file?

RIS files mostly belong to EndNote by Clarivate. A RIS file is a bibliography reference for a piece of written literature. Its contents are written in the text-based tag format developed by Research Information Systems. Each line in a RIS document begins with a two-letter tag indicating the record type, followed by two spaces, a hyphen, another two spaces, and then the record itself. A single reference to an article published by John Doe will look as follows:


TY - JOUR
AU - Doe, John
PY - 2022
Date - Jul
TI - Book Title

Another type of RIS file is a dataset compressed using zlib.

How do you open RIS files?

You need a suitable software like EndNote to open a RIS file. Without proper software you will receive a Windows message "How do you want to open this file?" or "Windows cannot open this file" or a similar Mac/iPhone/Android alert. If you cannot open your RIS file correctly, try to right-click or long-press the file. Then click "Open with" and choose an application. You can also display a RIS file directly in the browser:. Just drag the file onto this browser window and drop it.

Online RIS Text Viewer

Choose your .ris file to view

or drag and drop it here

Online File Viewer

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How to extract texts from RIS files or capture a screenshot to PDF, JPG, DOCX, TXT, ...

You can extract texts from RIS file or capture a preview screenshot using our online RIS file viewer:

Just click the "Choose your .ris file to view" button on this page.
After your file is opened in browser,
click "Save as..." in the menu.
Then choose the file format (e.g. JPG, PDF, DOCX, TXT, ...) you want.
Download the converted file.

Programs that open and convert RIS files:

EndNote by Clarivate
See the previous paragraphs to learn more about the main application. RIS files are often referred to as EndNote simple text files because this type of file is primarily created or used by this software.
HDF5 (compressed dataset) by HDF
HDF5 is a program for managing very large and complex datasets. RIS is one of its supported dataset formats. This file format is classified as Compressed.
Reference Manager (bibliography reference) by ISI ResearchSoft
Reference Manager (also called refman) is a discontinued bibliography and citation management software. It saves references in a RIS file. This file format is classified as Simple text file. Related links: RIS (file format)
Sublime (bibliography reference) by Sublime
Sublime is a plain text editing software available for Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms. It can be used to create and/or read bibliography references saved in a RIS file. This file format is classified as Simple text file. Related links: RIS (file format)
Wandora (bibliography reference) by Wandora Team
Wandora is a program for collecting, saving, formatting, and publishing software for Windows desktop. It saves bibliography references in a RIS file. This file format is classified as Simple text file. Related links: RIS (file format)

RIS format details:

The file format determines how the data is stored in the file. The first characters in a file identify the file format, for example, HTML files start with the bytes <html>. Nonetheless, different programs can utilize the same file extension to represent distinct file formats. Double-clicking on the file often results in an error when opening. If there are problems opening a file, you must first determine the file format used. In the following you will find our evaluation of the RIS files:

The RIS file extension is quite widespread and uses a uniform format that many programs support. But the following two file formats are common:

70% of all RIS files are associated with Bibliographic Reference. These files are plain text, which means they can be viewed with any text editor such as Windows Editor, Nano for Linux, and TextEdit for macOS. The files are often between 220 bytes and 2 KB in size. This file type is new and state-of-the-art. The keywords TY - JOUR are typical for these files. Files like these have the following tags: citation, export, citations, primo, item, endnote, delivery and references.
20% of all RIS files start with the magic bytes TY - , which are always the first bytes of this file format. The contents of these files are easily readable with a text editor. A typical file size is 1 KB. Certain words are almost always found in the files, such as TY - JOUR, Purpose, this and paper. Examples of file names are EmeraldInsight_citations_20180601.ris. Such RIS files store data about emerald, insight, usgs, atma and brand.

All other RIS files (10%) have no consistent format, the following 12 formats can be found: UTF-8, JOUR and Provider. These files sometimes refer to tandf, marlin, cart, iopexport, achs or nature. Drag & drop your file here to see the file format and a preview of your RIS file!

Technical Data for RIS File Extension

File classification:

Simple text file

Related files:

irs, bib, enw, bibtex, iris, rls, pdf, txt, ric, nbib, zip, citation, rs, cis, iso2709, docx, rif, exe, res, ri, ens, enl

Related links:

RIS (file format)

Mime type:

application/x-research-info-systems

The following listing is compiled from the database produced by the 'Associate This!' program, selected data from the main FILExt database and file extension information submitted by users.

ProgramID: risfile
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\COMMON~1\Risxtd\Risweb32.exe %1

ProgramID: risfile
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\DELADE~1\Risxtd\Risweb32.exe %1

ProgramID: risfile
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\FICHIE~1\Risxtd\Risweb32.exe

a ris bibliography reference is a special file format by Clarivate and should only be edited and saved with the appropriate software.

How to solve problems with RIS files

Associate the RIS file extension with the correct application.
Update your software that should actually open bibliography references. Because only the current version supports the latest RIS file format. Search, therefore, e.g. on the Clarivate manufacturer website after an available EndNote update.
To make sure that your RIS file is not corrupted or virus-infected, get the file again and scan it with Google's virustotal.com.
Click here to open your .RIS file online - secure, fast, and no downloads needed.